Who knew we are so precious?

In claiming a forest of green shoots, "The finance ministry listed as many as 14 separate indicators across manufacturing, services, finance and agriculture to back this up in a statement entitled 'Increase in Economic Activity-Improvement in Economic Indicators' issued on Tuesday, which saw the BSE Sensex breaching the 35,000 point mark for the first time since March 11, closing at 35,430, up 1.5%."  "The unemployment rate in India fell to its pre-lockdown level of 8.5% in the week ended June 21 from the peak rate of 23.5% in April and May after the nationwide lockdown was imposed resulting in job losses for millions of workers," according to the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). However, a major reason for this drop is improvement in agriculture, and a subsidy MGNREGA. The Chief Economic Adviser Krishnamurthy Subramanian predicted a V-shaped recovery if a vaccine for coronavirus is discovered. Hallelujah! He did not say how you would vaccinate 1.3 billion people, how much it would cost and who will pay for it. "India's economic recovery is more likely to be a 'U' or 'W' shaped rather than 'V' as the impact of Covid-19 will be profound on a nation that was already struggling for growth prior to the pandemic, analysts said." Fortunately, no one predicted a 'L' shaped recovery for India, although such a probability is being discussed for the US. Probably because, in India, "Nearly 90% of the country's workforce is in the informal sector with no minimum wages or any kind of social security." So, they must do something to avoid hunger. But not just the poor. "In a peculiar trend, the inequality gap in India is expected to narrow after the Covid-19 pandemic even as per capita income (PCI) is projected to decline by 5.4% during the ongoing fiscal to Rs 1.43 lakh, according to a State Bank of India (SBI) Research report released on Tuesday." We are becoming equally poor. "The Imperial College model shows that sustained moderate social distancing can save up to 1.9 million lives in India, roughly one-third of projected casualties," wrote Chairman of the PM's Economic Advisory Council Bibek Debroy and President of Copenhagen Consensus Bjorn Lomberg. But they estimate that "the total economic cost of long-term moderate social distancing in India would likely be Rs 91 trillion and could reach Rs 231 trillion", which, they think, is "a poor idea as social costs will outweigh benefits 7 to 1". If Debroy is Chairman of advice, why did Prime Minister Narendra Modi impose a draconian lockdown without consulting experts and why was it being lifted when cases were rising exponentially? If Debroy now thinks that 1.9 million Indians are worth sacrificing should he not lead the way by resigning his post? Rs 91 trillion for 1.9 million is Rs 45 million per Indian. We are so precious. Hallelujah in spades.